Saturday, May 14, 2016

1. MEETING DENVER AND FRIENDS

1. MEETING DENVER AND FRIENDS

Denver,[1] the Last Dinosaur, and his friends were playing in the fields. They lost their ball and Denver went looking for it. He found four strange children lying on the other side of the field. He was terrified at first since it was the first time he was seeing such people. Drawing near and looking closer, he observed that they were unconscious. He went to the stream nearby and carried water in his mouth and splashed it on their faces to wake them. The four Earthlings revived and they couldn’t believe their eyes when they saw Denver standing before them.

Zach: “Maybe we should close our eyes and everything will return to normal when we open them again.”

Zach and Alan closed their eyes hard to verify whether they were dreaming or not. But Noah wouldn’t let them ruin the miraculous encounter.

Noah: “Guys, our dreams have come true. Remember the bright light, floating in space, our hope and the certainty of the outcome? This is really Denver, the last dinosaur.”

Meanwhile, Denver had taken some steps back and hid himself behind a tree because of the strange attitude of the Earthlings. Noah put aside every fear because she wanted what she saw. She confidently walked towards the green dinosaur and greeted.

Noah: “Hi Denver. I am Noah and I want to be your friend. My buddies there are Ryan, Zach and Alan. We come from Earth and we’re so glad to meet you.”

Noah stretched out a hand to Denver and Denver, a little suspicious at first, soon carried her in his arms and kissed her.

Noah: “Come on guys; what are you waiting for?”

The others marvelled at what appeared as their crossing over to a different reality.

Alan: “Hey, Noah is right. He has fulfilled our dream. I think we’ve traversed into another dimension.”

Zach: “You mean to Noah’s dimension. I didn’t know she loved that dinosaur so much that He would grant her that wish.”

Alan: “This is wild. It’s Denver as we know him in the cartoon. The guys back home are totally not going to believe us when we tell them this.”

Ryan: “We four have seen it and it’s enough for the whole world to believe.”

Zach: “Look at him playing with Noah. He’s friendly like in the show.”

Alan: “I’ve met a dinosaur as I’ve always wanted and Denver the cartoon dinosaur on top of that. Gigantic! This is what I mean.”

They all moved to Denver and he carried them in turn, licking each of them like he used to do. After these affectionate greetings, Denver spoke to them with gestures and words hard to understand and they perceived he wanted them to follow him. So he took them to his companions - Mario, Wally, Shades and Jeremy.[2]

Ryan: “Well, what do you know? You may as well meet some people you never loved in the series.”

Denver’s companions, Mario and Shades, didn’t take any liking to their dinosaur’s new friends. They walked straight to Denver and put him under interrogation.

Mario: “Who are these clowns Denver?”

Shades: “And where are they from?”

Mario: “We want straight answers.”

Denver introduced the Earthlings to his companions and then tried to make them understand that his new friends were going to stay with them.

Mario: “Are you insane? We do not own our villa yet to house these aliens. But that’s not even the issue. The issue is, I don’t like their faces, and they aren’t coming with us. End of the matter.”

Shades: “Yea; full stop, period, conclusion and sealed. We’re not coming back to this.”

The attitude of Mario and Shades surprised the Earthlings; those two looked less sociable than they knew them. The Earthlings tried to explain their situation further, hoping to change the minds of those two but Mario and Shades wouldn’t listen to anything. They didn’t capitulate until Denver got angry for he too wouldn’t let Noah go. There went the dispute between the green dinosaur and his two friends. Then Zach spoke out.

Zach: “We don’t want to bother you either but we have no choice. We come from Aven of planet Earth and faith brought us here. We were traveling in space when a light shone and covered us. We awoke and found ourselves in this place. We don’t know if this is another part of Earth or another planet altogether. Please, let us come with you and find how we can get back home. What do you say Jeremy?”

Wally: “Since they don’t know how to return to their world, we can keep them with us for a while until we find a solution.”

Mario: “Where do you brains want to keep them? Certainly not in your house Wally! You have difficulties keeping Denver already; how will you cope with these four? What if your parents see them and find out on the same occasion that Denver is still living in their house? All our efforts to hide that from them would prove useless. Our dinosaur will be taken away from us and will be exposed at the reserve in the South. This is the worst-case scenario, and it’s too nightmarish to picture. Noooooo.”

Wally: “Wake up Mario; you know none of that will happen. Let’s first get to the city and then we’ll figure out what to do.”

Jeremy: “Welcome to Nootra Alan, Noah, Zach, Ryan. These are the outskirts of the West Side of our city. We’ve never heard of the planet you mentioned but we would be glad to learn about your world. Don’t worry; many have studied space and teleportation in our city. If you’re lucky, they’ll help you get back to your home. Sure, you look strange. We’ve never seen people like you before though there are many races in this galaxy.”

Shades: “Hey brainiacs, how will you get these extra-Nootrans into the city? Remember the recent events. The bat guards the city day and night though he pretends doing so only under the sun. He will let no alien in.”

Mario: “Why worry Shades; super Mario has the solution to every problem. Let’s tell the big guy they’re our ancestors’ children who got lost in the woods long ago, like the legend says.”

Jeremy: “That won’t work Mario; at least not on the bat. And legend often means a story that never happened exactly as it is told.”

Wally: “I’ve got an idea, though it may sound dishonest at another angle. Our football champions are out of town for their training. Why not disguise these guys like them?”

Jeremy: “Brilliant Wally. I think I can do it. I need tools from Casey’s super bag, and I’ll camouflage them like a pro.”

Jeremy went to work and his companions helped him. The trick was done after two hours of hi-tech plastic surgery. Ryan transformed into Papan, Noah became Benjamin, Zach turned into Cesare and Alan was the clone of Yann.[3] The four Earthlings looked exactly like Papan, Benjamin, Cesare and Yann.

Alan: “Incredible! How did you do this?”

Shades: “Jeremy is the smart one here; he can do anything. Not like the sluggard over there who calls himself ‘super’.”

Mario: “I believe I heard Shades speaking about himself.”

Batman[4] was standing on the city gates and he greeted the children as they approached the metropolis.

[1]Denver, the Last Dinosaur is a U.S.-French cartoon originally released in 1988 by World Events Productions. The cartoon is centered on Denver, a dinosaur.

[3] Papan, Benjamin, Cesare and Yann appear in l’Ecole des Champions. L’École des Champions (original title: Moero! Top Striker) is an anime on football. According to Studio Animage, it is a French production, directed by Ryô Yasumura and Thibaut Chatel. It was broadcasted in France for the first time in November 1992 on TF1.

[4] Batman (Bruce Wayne, the Dark Knight) was created by artist Bob Kane and writer Bill Finger. He first appeared in Detective Comics #27 (May 1939), and since then has appeared primarily in publications by DC Comics.